Hockey: McGill's Ward makes national team

McGill defender Catherine Ward is going to join her Marlets mate, goalie Charline Labonte, on Team Canada at the upcoming world championship in Finland next month.

That sounds pretty sweet for Ward, who at 22 is the youngest defenceman on Melody Davidson's roster. All of the players going to the worlds will be centralized with Hockey Canada's residency program next season, so she will be lost to McGill, not that it will hurt the Martlets tremendously (they didn't skip a bit when several players were at the 2009 Universiade).

It's always good to see someone who pursued collegiate hockey in Canada get a shot. There have been fewer since NCAA schools really started to invest in women's hockey. Veteran winger Jayna Hefford (hey! Her mom coached one of my sister Trina's teams!) did play at U of T for a couple years and defender Colleen Sostorics played for the Calgary Dinos.

Shannon Szabados, who plays collegiately at Grant McEwan College in Alberta, is going to give Labonte and fellow McGiller Kim St-Pierre some competition in goal.

Canada, as you know, is out to reclaim the IIHF world women's title after losing to the U.S. in the worlds last spring in Harbin, China.